I love the idea of one size fits all because it sounds easy and definite. However, the promise of one size fits all is something that I learned to steer away from in life. I suppose it was my experience in the military that first debunked this great idea.

One size does occasionally fit all, but not always. My drill sergeant assured me that the if my equipment stated “one size fits all” that it would fit me, no matter what. I protested one time when a rain poncho I was wearing was clearly too big and I paid for it dearly. I had to practice rolling in a mud puddle for about 20 minutes in the freezing cold while everyone else was eating some hot chow under a canopy. After some time, I was asked if my rain poncho fit, and I replied “like a glove drill sergeant!”

Fortunately we don’t have to live in a world where businesses are forced to accept a solution that does not fit their needs, although some companies will try and make it fit, or make you believe it fits. A good IT solution provider will find the right solution for your business’ needs no matter what adjustments need to be made to a sales solution, or technical implementation. What I’m referring to here is flexibility in hardware & software choices and robust options in implementations of those chosen technologies.

Take for example a typical high availability  backup system. You have servers that are backed up and resilient because of their high availability cloud solution. You then have all workstations backing up to the servers and the servers themselves backing up at night & during the day to the cloud. The cloud, usually 2 -3 data centers backup to each other.

It’s a great solution, but what is the start-up cost? What is the monthly and yearly costs? What if you need high availability and cloud backup but it is cost prohibitive to your organization. So you throw your hands in the air and give up? Hopefully not. If you have a qualified IT firm taking care of your backup and high availability planning, they should be able to develop a system that may be scaled down but does not break the bank. Sometimes a simplified and scaled down solution can give you the protection and security you need.

The ability of your IT firm to scale packages up and down to meet the needs of their customers is crucial to the success of that client company. As a client you may want to ask some of the following questions to make sure that you’re getting the right solution. Your technology provider, or IT firm may not give you all the answers you want, but they should be able to give you informative answers that assist you in understanding your backup and high availability platforms.

• What type of hardware do you use in your solution? Is it expensive to repair? Can it be upgraded as time goes by?
• What type of software do you use in your solution? Can it ever be changed for something different?
• If our business grows, will we need all new hardware for our backup system? Can we build on what we already have?
• If we downsize our business and need to reduce costs, can we still maintain a backup or high availability platform and pay less money?
• What will the cost difference be if we start with a smaller system and grow into a larger one?
• If you implement a system that will quickly outgrow, will your firm absorb some of the cost for implementing a larger system?
• What is the expected up-time for our data and our systems if we use the “x” recommended solution vs. the “y” solution?
• What kind of support can we expect to receive if we implement your system? will it be 24×7 on the hardware and the software? Will there be additional fees?
• How long is this technology expected to last? When we we have to switch to an entirely new type of technology?

Depending on your technology choice for backup and high availability, you may receive greatly varying answers, however, make sure that your solutions provider knows their products and they can remain flexible in providing you with the best possible cloud backup / availability system.